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Deep Sea Research Center
The Deep Sea Research Center, also known as Battleship Island, is a hidden island located far out in the middle of the ocean, in the south-west corner of the world map of Final Fantasy VIII. It is an abandoned, half-sunken laboratory formerly used to research draw effects, however, other, less commonly known research may have been going on. Deep Sea Research Center can be found as early as disc 2 when Balamb Garden becomes mobile, but it cannot be entered. The party must wait until gaining access to Ragnarok to land on top of the structure to get inside. Deep Sea Research Center remains available during endgame. Story The island is a manmade mobile facility said to have been constructed for marine research. In present time it lays abandoned, not marked on any maps. If Zell is in the party, he will tell about the place's history when the SeeDs come onboard. Known as "Battleship Island", researchers working at this facility were attempting to develop another draw system, gathering different energy and materials for their study. They were in pursuit of a large draw point said to be found somewhere on the planet. It is said their research used Guardian Forces for their experiments. It can be deduced the researchers found what they were looking for, and left fearing the power they had found, as the place appears to have been sealed and then purposefully abandoned. The facility is infested with monsters. It houses a blue pulsing core where the party can find the Guardian Force Bahamut. Traversing to the bottom of the facility lets the party find the most powerful Guardian Force in the world, within a powerful monster that seems to have been sealed away by the researchers. After the SeeDs destroy the monster, the facility remains clear of monsters. Geography The Research Center is located far from any land mass out in the vastness of the sea in the south-western corner of the map. The corner of the map is a recurring location for secret locations in the Final Fantasy games. The Research Center is a mostly sunken dilapidated building now covered in foliage. It has a large helipad visible on the top, and a small, wooden bridge leading to the Research Center inside where a few of the rooms are still intact. The upper floors are badly damaged with debris throughout, but the lower floors are constructed of metal and filled with machinery. The bottom floors are made of stone. Many of the rooms in the Research Center are circular, centered around a focal point at the middle. When calculating the facility's enemies' levels, the game uses the normal formula, but adds 15 levels. If the player has Zell open the door to the deeper levels of the facility, the enemy encounters will be unavoidable even with Enc-None equipped. After Ultima Weapon has been felled, enemy encounters in the facility cease. Blue light The first room is circular and dome-like, centered around a large blue light in a pillar in the middle. Ivy grows over much of this room, including over the light itself. When the blue light at the core spins, several holographic screens circle it. The blue light in the middle warns visitors with a message "blue light leads to death". Those who reach the center and answer the mysterious voice's questions fight Bahamut to claim him as a Guardian Force. Moving while the light is spinning will start a monster encounter, meaning the player should approach only when the light is not moving. Cavern After defeating Bahamut a hole appears on the ground where the core was. This leaves a large amount of ivy hanging from the ceiling, with a hole in the ceiling letting light through, as well as a lot of debris. The player cannot initially descend, but if they leave the Deep Sea Research Center and initiate a conversation with a character or NPC (such as talking to party members inside the Ragnarok), a save point will appear and the player can advance down the hole by climbing down the ivy. Floors After defeating Bahamut the party can descend deeper into the facility by climbing down the ivy through an opening in the ceiling to the first of five floors above the excavation site. The floors in this part of the Research Center are nearly identical. They are entirely metal, with machinery, pressure pipes, and valves, and not so much visible debris. The rooms have glass walls with a vision out to the depths of the sea, with fish swimming near the facility. Trap doors, opened with terminals around the rooms, lead to staircases down to lower floors. On the final floor, in place of a trapdoor is an elevator. The player can access the next floor by expending units of steam pressure. As the player advances deeper in the complex, different fish can be seen through the windows. Level 2 has a Dispel draw point. Level 3 has a steam room, which recharges 7 units of steam pressure. Steam room The steam room is an enclosed, circular room centered around a steam machine with a large number of pressure pipes connected to it, and a valve. To the right, near the back, is a terminal with an orange screen from where the steam pressure units are controlled. If the player expends the correct amount of steam in each floor they open access to the steam room on level 3 where they can get more steam pressure units. The room contains an Esuna draw point adjacent to the machine at the center. Elevator room The elevator room is the final room before reaching the excavation site, and is a circular room with a large machine in the center and a door on the left to the site. The door to the excavation site takes four pressure units to open, or the player may ask Zell to open it without using any units (if he is in the party). Using Zell awakens the monsters in the lower parts of the facility, making the battles down there frequent and unavoidable. The player needs to conserve ten units to have enough to fight Ultima Weapon at the bottom. Excavation site The excavation site is a set of wider, eroded, stone ruins around a pit at the center, with stairs leading along its walls around the outside of the pit, where damaged buildings can be seen. The ruins resemble those seen in the Centra continent, with similar Greek architecture. Many of the floors have tile patterns, and some areas have statues. The site is made of five areas. The first area contains a save point, the third contains a hidden Triple draw point, and the fifth contains a hidden Ultima draw point. Bottom floor The bottom floor of the facility has a pool of water with the metal pipe from the depths leading down into it. Small, worn away pillars with bright blue crystals are seen around the stone floor. A small machine, presumably controlling the pipe, is presumably connected to the Research Center above. It is reached by a set of stairs on the right. The bottom floor has a hidden save point and a device that requires the use of ten steam pressure units to summon the Ultima Weapon. Quests Obtaining Bahamut There is a flashing blue pillar in the middle of the first room. If the core is in the middle of a pulse and the party moves, they enter a random battle. When the party approaches the core, a voice asks them a question (So you wish to challenge me?). If answered correctly (It's not our will to fight), the party will fight a Ruby Dragon, and if the party wins, the next question (Begging me for mercy?) is asked, and the correct answer is "Never". If the party answers correctly they will fight another Ruby Dragon (this battle is an unavoidable back attack), but if any are answered incorrectly the party will be warped back to the entrance and they will have to start over again. The player can bring a low health Quistis and use her Degenerator Limit Break to defeat the Ruby Dragons easily. The trick is that on the final question (Damned imbeciles. Why do you wish to fight?), there is a hidden answer, below the main two (revealed to be "It's our nature"). If the hidden option is selected, Squall and the party will fight the Guardian Force Bahamut. Deep Sea Deposit When Bahamut is defeated the blue core is destroyed. If the party leaves the area, talks to an NPC or party member, and returns, the site allows access to the facility's lower levels by a vine structure. There are a series of floors leading down to the excavation site, called the "Deep Sea Deposit" . Squall must open up each door using units of pressure, but must conserve enough units for the final lock at the bottom of the excavation site. The party starts with a set number of units, and must conserve ten if they are to fight Ultima Weapon. There is a point where the party can gain more units. If the party uses the pressure units to access the excavation site, the Enc-None ability can be used to traverse the site. If the party uses Zell to force open the jammed door leading into the excavation site without using up units, the party encounters a number of scripted battles that cannot be avoided using Enc-None or the Remastered version's "turn random encounters off" cheat. When the party reaches the bottom, Squall will use the last of his pressure units. After a pause, sounds emanate from above and the air gets heavy. The party is thrust into a battle against Ultima Weapon, the second most powerful opponent in the game (behind Omega Weapon). Ultima Weapon carries the strongest GF in the game, Eden. The player can either mug a Three Stars from it, or defeat it without mugging to get 100 Ultima Stones. Steam pressure units Each level is divided into three sectors. The sector the player is in is determined by how many units they spend to open the door leading from level 2 to 3. Once in a sector, the player cannot switch to a higher cost sector, but can switch to a lower cost sector. For simplicity, the sectors are A (highest cost, 4 units), B (mid cost, 2 units) and C (lowest cost, 1 unit). E.g. If one were to spend 4 units on level 2→3, they would be in sector A (highest cost) and on level 3 they would be access Sectors A, B and C on level 4. But if one were to spend 2 units on level 2→3, one would be in sector B (mid cost) and would only be able to access sectors B and C on level 4. The only difference of the sectors is that the player needs to spend 2 units on level 2 to access the steam room on level 3, Sector B. Other than that, the player can use 1 unit to proceed all the way to the bottom. One can skip the steam room if one lets Zell open the final door, but doing so will trigger several unavoidable encounters on the way to the excavation site. The player only gets one chance to have Zell open the door on the last floor. If the player chooses to not let him open it, he will never offer to open it again even if the player resets the steam levels. There is a terminal buried underneath the rubble in level 1. Examining it gives the player 20 energy units. Four units are spent opening the door to level 2. On level 2, the player should expend 2 units to access sector 2. On level 3, they should expend 4 units to access the steam room and use the terminal to gain 7 extra units, then return to sector 2 and expend 1 unit to access sector 6. From then on the player should expend no more than 1 unit each floor until reaching level 6, where they can expend 4 units to access the excavation site and still have 10 units left over to use at the bottom. Alternatively, the player can ask Zell to open the last door without expending any units, but it will wake up the monsters and the way down will be plagued by encounters against strong opponents that can't be avoided with Enc-None and cannot be escaped from (not even the Remastered version's cheat to turn off encounters works). Curse Spike farming The player can fight Tri-Faces at the top of the excavation site to amass Curse Spikes. 100 Curse Spikes can be turned into a Dark Matter, an item that teaches Quistis Shockwave Pulsar, her most powerful Blue Magic, and also refines into 100 Ultima spells. Musical themes The Deep Sea Research Center's theme is "Junction". "Only a Plank Between One and Perdition" plays during the boss battles. Other appearances ''Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade Gallery ;Artwork Deep Sea Research Center FFVIII Art 1.jpg|Early concept art of the island. Deep Sea Research Center FF8 Art.jpg|Concept art of the island. 8b-deep_see_research_center.jpg|Concept art of the island. Deep Sea Research Center FFVIII Art 2.jpg|Concept art of one of the floors. Deep Sea Research Center FFVIII Art 3.jpg|Concept art of the bottom of the elevator. ;Screenshots First underwater floor of Deep Sea Research Center from FFVIII R.png|First underwater floor. Deep Sea Research Center Steam Room control from FFVIII R.png|Steam Room controls. Trivia *Battleship Island (''Gunkanjima in Japanese, alternately called Hashima) is a small island near Nagasaki, Japan, famous for the abandoned city of Hashima built around a coal mine that went into decline after Japanese power plants switched to using petroleum. Both the real Battleship Island and the one in Final Fantasy VIII house ruined structures. de:Forschungsinsel it:Isola di ricerca sottomarina Category:Locations in Final Fantasy VIII Category:Islands